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We use insights to drive business resultsTue, 13 Sep 2016 21:42:34 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.1AdWords Scripts We All Need – Right Nowhttp://honeypotmarketing.com/best-adwords-scripts/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/best-adwords-scripts/#respondTue, 13 Sep 2016 21:40:49 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=5155It’s true, we ❤️ AdWords Scripts. We’ve compiled a collection of some of our favourite scripts that we use (and extend) every day for our AdWords campaigns. Didn’t get the memo? What Are AdWords Scripts? AdWords scripts provide a way to programmatically control AdWords data using JavaScript. We use scripts to automate common procedures or […]

Keyword Performance Report

Loving this one, it’s a great example of the more advanced examples Google provides to us. Weekly distribution charts related to the quality score and average position of ads triggered on Google search.

Keyword Performance Report is an example of advanced reporting functionality provided by AdWords scripts. Advertisers like to understand how keywords are performing in their campaigns. Two important metrics for keyword performance are quality score and average position of ads triggered on Google search. Keyword Performance Report generates a Google Spreadsheet with a number of interesting distribution charts.

Weather Based Campaign Management

Last (but not least) is the ability to bid up or down your campaigns based on real-time weather data.

The other interesting thing here (and I hope your wheels are turning) would be the ability to adjust your campaigns based on any open data, for example: government and political data, sports information, social data, news data and more. The possibilities are truly endless.

]]>http://honeypotmarketing.com/best-adwords-scripts/feed/0Thanks Tips! Upload Your Video To YouTube without Processinghttp://honeypotmarketing.com/youtube-video-settings/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/youtube-video-settings/#respondTue, 14 Jun 2016 15:16:17 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=4939So you’ve shot the perfect video and you’re ready to upload your masterpiece to YouTube. You get your video file uploaded and once it’s done, you see the dreaded “Processing” progress bar. Gah! That’s more time, admittedly not the end of the world but every minute counts in the world of Digital Marketing. Plus, we […]

]]>So you’ve shot the perfect video and you’re ready to upload your masterpiece to YouTube. You get your video file uploaded and once it’s done, you see the dreaded “Processing” progress bar.

Gah! That’s more time, admittedly not the end of the world but every minute counts in the world of Digital Marketing. Plus, we want to be effective and efficient in all of our workflows.

Well friends, in today’s addition to our popular “Thanks Tips” series, I’ve put together the handy settings you need to prevent “transcoding” or “processing” by YouTube.

Using the setting in Apple’s Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premier or your favourite editing suite of choice, you’ll skip a step and improve your video quality by simply selecting the proper formats so YouTube will not have to do it for you.

Make sure you’ve got these items in your export settings so when you upload your next video you’ll be skipping that step and saving yourself precious time.

Content should be encoded and uploaded using the same frame rate that was used during recording.

Common frame rates include: 24, 25, 30, 48, 50 and 60 frames per second. 30 is the most common that I’ve run into.

Interlaced content should be deinterlaced before uploading. For example, 1080i60 content should be deinterlaced to 1080p30, going from 60 interlaced fields per second to 30 progressive frames per second.

Bit rate

The bit rates below are recommendations for uploads. Audio playback bit rate is not related to video resolution.

Recommended video bit rates for uploads

Type

Video Bit Rate, Standard Frame Rate
(24, 25, 30)

Video Bit Rate, High Frame Rate
(48, 50, 60)

2160 p (4k)

35-45 Mbps

53-68 Mbps

1440 p (2k)

16 Mbps

24 Mbps

1080 p

8 Mbps

12 Mbps

720 p

5 Mbps

7.5 Mbps

480 p

2.5 Mbps

4 Mbps

360 p

1 Mbps

1.5 Mbps

Recommended audio bit rates for uploads

Type

Audio Bit Rate

Mono

128 kbps

Stereo

384 kbps

5.1

512 kbps

Resolution and aspect ratio

YouTube uses 16:9 aspect ratio players. If you’re uploading a non-16:9 file, it will be processed and displayed correctly as well, with pillar boxes (black bars on the left and right) or letter boxes (black bars at the top and bottom) provided by the player.

]]>http://honeypotmarketing.com/youtube-video-settings/feed/0Thanks Tips! Hootsuite + Instagram Integrationhttp://honeypotmarketing.com/hootsuite-instagram-integration-2015-update/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/hootsuite-instagram-integration-2015-update/#commentsThu, 13 Aug 2015 22:09:36 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=4587Last week couldn’t have brought better news for community managers everywhere. In case you haven’t heard, Hootsuite has introduced their new integration with Instagram! (Pause for applause.) As a community manager in the ever-changing social scene, there was always one thing I hoped for as I sat with phone in hand, waiting for the optimum […]

As a community manager in the ever-changing social scene, there was always one thing I hoped for as I sat with phone in hand, waiting for the optimum time to unleash that content… and it was the ability to schedule posts.

Finally, Hootsuite has heard the desperate cries of social media marketers everywhere and made our dream a reality!

Hootsuite Instagram Integration

Instagram has resisted the aspect of scheduling for a while, and for obvious reasons (they don’t call it INSTAgram for nothing).

But with this new breakthrough there is still one caveat.

Instagram is sticking to its rules about not allowing third party apps to post content to their platform.

]]>http://honeypotmarketing.com/hootsuite-instagram-integration-2015-update/feed/1Get Mobile-Friendly or No Search For You!http://honeypotmarketing.com/google-mobile-friendly-search-update/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/google-mobile-friendly-search-update/#respondFri, 17 Apr 2015 20:32:26 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=4477April 21st, 2015 – it could be just business as usual for you…or it could be the day all that lovely organic traffic that Google’s been sending you dries up into nothing. All because of the dreaded Google Mobile-Friendly update. You have heard about the Google Mobile-Friendly update right? Here’s what the big “G” announced […]

]]>April 21st, 2015 – it could be just business as usual for you…or it could be the day all that lovely organic traffic that Google’s been sending you dries up into nothing.

All because of the dreaded Google Mobile-Friendly update.

You have heard about the Google Mobile-Friendly update right?

Here’s what the big “G” announced back on February 26th:

Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices. ~Google Webmaster Central Blog

In Google’s own words – this update is going to have a significant impact on search results, which is probably why they saw fit to announce it ahead of time, which is in rare form for them.

In fact, while the Penguin and Panda are synonymous with death and destruction among webmasters everywhere (I am exaggerating ever-so-slightly here), the mobile friendliness update is poised to easily eclipse their reach by affecting potentially 60% of the sites on the web.

The fact that this change is happening shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone remotely aware of the popularity of smart phones and mobile browsing. While Google has long been recommending mobile friendly versions of websites, they’re finally drawing a line in the sand;

It’s either get mobile friendly or be eliminated from mobile search (in other words – no search for you!).

So with April 21st almost upon us, time is running out for you to get your site ready. Is it time to panic and look for a tall building to throw yourself off of?

Well, not necessarily, step one is to determine if your site is mobile friendly or not according to Google.

Is Your Site Mobile-Friendly?

So how can you tell if your website is mobile friendly or not?

Well, if the site was built five years ago or more, chances are it isn’t mobile friendly at all.

However, if you worked with a reputable web designer in the past 3 years, it’s likely they would have recommended either a dedicated mobile website, or a responsive design website.

Responsive design websites can adapt to any screen size, from desktop to tablet to smart phone automatically.

Google has a free test that you can use to find out if your website is mobile-friendly, no guess work required.

Did your site pass?

If not, don’t panic just yet…first ask yourself the following question:

Do I Need to Fix My Site Right Now?

If your site needs to be mobile optimized, you have a few options.

You could get a mobile version of your website

You could get a responsive version of your website

Or you could do absolutely nothing at all

While many web designers and developers will spout words like “mobilegeddon” and intone that it will be the end of your business as you know it if you don’t buy a new website (namely from them); this update doesn’t have to be doom and gloom.

Don’t get me wrong; having a mobile friendly website is definitely a ‘best practices’ recommendation, and most of us aren’t in the position to pass up any additional “free traffic” we can get from Google.

But choosing to upgrade to a mobile friendly website will also depend on the type of business that you have and whether your website is directly contributing to your earnings already.

After all, a 60% decrease in 0% earnings still equals $0.

If you’ve never been able to measure ROI on visitors to your website, and you don’t sell anything online, you may be among those who can afford to wait before you invest in a new or mobile version of your website.

However, if you know for a fact that you’re getting a sizable chunk of organic traffic from Google right now and you’re not mobile friendly – then it’s gut-check time.

You need to ask yourself if your business can handle losing a significant portion of that free Google traffic after April 21st.

You’ll also want to look at your competition [Ninja Tip: run the mobile-friendly test on your direct competitors] and see if they’re in the position to leapfrog your website.

If your industry is rife with mobile-friendly competition, you’ll need to get your site optimized if you want to stay visible in Google’s organic search.

How Much Mobile Traffic Does My Website Get?

To find out how much of your traffic is mobile, you can check Google Analytics, or your email service provider for data.

For instance, in Google Analytics you can check out the percentage of your mobile visitors and what their bounce and conversion rates look like.

This will tell you all that you need to know in terms of how many mobile visitors you get to your website.

If there is less than 10% of mobile coming to your website, chances are you’re in no huge rush to get a mobile-friendly version of your site up and running.

Not even 20% of the traffic to Honeypot Marketing.com is from mobile visitors as you can see below:

[Ninja Tip: For a more accurate picture of the amount of mobile traffic, expand your date range from 1 month to 3 or 6 months. You can also compare 2015 with 2014 and see how much (or how little) mobile traffic has increased to your website versus the previous year.]

Don’t have web analytics hooked up to your website?

We won’t judge you….but really? You don’t have analytics for your website????

Seriously, another way to get a sense of the ‘mobility of your audience’ (I just made that up) is to check your email service provider’s stats.

Mailchimp, for instance has a report that breaks this down for you. Just click on your list, then click “stats” and scroll down and you can see something like this:

This will at least tell you the percentage of mobile visitors who read your emails, and if they click any of the links to your website – they’ll be surfing your website from their phone.

The example above is from my personal Mailchimp account for one of my sites. It shows almost half of my subscribers are reading my emails on their phone, so making sure my site is mobile friendly makes a lot of sense – especially if I’m trying to sell anything to the mobile crowd.

Steps To Get Your Website Mobile Friendly

Now that you know:

1) That your site is/isn’t mobile-friendly

2) The approximate amount of mobile traffic to your website

3) Whether your website is responsible for generating sales for your business

You can make an educated decision on whether you need to make your site mobile-friendly right now, or perhaps hold off a little bit longer.

Honeypot Marketing recommends having a mobile responsive website that adapts to any screen size so that your online presence can handle whatever screen your audience happens to use; that’s what we use (and you can see above that we passed with flying colours!).

Need help with getting your website mobile friendly? We can help, just drop us a line and let’s talk responsive website design and the ‘mobility of your audience’ (sorry – I just had to throw that in again).

P.S. Keep in mind that it will take at least a few days before the new mobile-friendly search update is reflected across all of Google’s data centers world wide; so even if your website isn’t mobile friendly just yet – it shouldn’t disappear from mobile search exactly at 12 am on April 21st.

]]>http://honeypotmarketing.com/google-mobile-friendly-search-update/feed/0Essential Skills Every Marketer Needs in 2015 (with Resources)http://honeypotmarketing.com/marketing-skills-2015/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/marketing-skills-2015/#commentsThu, 01 Jan 2015 20:08:18 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=4224Before we dig into the article, I’m throwing up a blogging challenge and I’d invite you to do the same! Here it is: A brand new year is upon us. Before diving into 2015 and all of the promise it holds, it’s an ideal time to reflect on our experiences over the past year and what […]

]]>Before we dig into the article, I’m throwing up a blogging challenge and I’d invite you to do the same! Here it is:

My 2015 personal commitment to write 2 quality blogs posts (minimum 500 words, topics must be marketing and/or growth hacking) right here on the Honeypot Marketing Blog or my personal blog at http://dannedelko.com each and every week. If I trip up and miss my target, I will be donating $10 for each weekly infraction to The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. You heard it here first. If I somehow manage to make it through 2015 producing a minimum of 104 quality articles I’ll donate a minimum of $250 at the end of 2015 in addition to any infraction penalties!

A brand new year is upon us. Before diving into 2015 and all of the promise it holds, it’s an ideal time to reflect on our experiences over the past year and what we have to look forward to in the upcoming year.

At this point, you’ve likely seen this comment in every business related article: Marketing became even more complex in 2014, with new platforms, users consuming media in new an exciting ways, and making purchasing decisions in drastically different ways than ever before.

We are indeed herding cats…

We saw the rise of SnapChat, Yo, and Instagram to name just a few. YouTube matured from an “online video” platform into a video consumption platform for the masses.

Mobile has crossed the divide into the average consumers day-to-day life. No longer is it the tech elite who are sporting highly advanced mobile devices and using these cool devices daily. It’s your mom and grandfather.

Fun fact: the largest single growing demographic using social media is the 65+ crowd with 34% of seniors in Canada connected to popular social networking platforms.

BitCoin went from being an interesting toy to being a mainstream payment method, unlocking significant opportunity for businesses and individuals. The Internet of Everything is coming very soon, the interconnectedness of our world is accelerating.

As modern marketers attempting to navigate the complex waters of the modern business landscape what do we need to know to be successful in 2015?

First, let’s cover some core philosophies we carry with us everyday at The Hive:

Marketers do not simply accept the product as it is, we listen, measure and recommend specific products changes that will have a positive effect on the business.

Marketers are no longer simply waving banners and shouting from mountain tops. We are data driven, technical and care deeply about the person on the other end of the line.

Code skills begin with HTML and CSS. These are the basic building blocks of your capabilities, next steps would include an understanding of web technologies; how data, consumer activities and performance are affected by your marketing efforts.

Getting started in understanding code is easy, we’re lucky to have access to low cost, great platforms like Codecademy. Keep in mind you don’t need to be a code warrior, you do need to understand what you’re looking at and how things work together.

You’ll be more effective, knowledgeable and empowered to achieve those targets you’ve set, developers won’t scoff at us marketers (well maybe they simply won’t scoff as much!) and we’ll be able to execute rather than write execution briefs. These skills make us valuable in the “new normal” landscape of modern marketing.

Data and Business Analytics

Are you still looking at the Sessions Overview in Google Analytics and cheering when the chart goes up and to the right?

Oh my.

Taking time to understand how our efforts are impacting the business directly will make the difference between statements like:

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half. ~ John Wanamaker

and being able to make data driven, knowledgeable and thoughtful decisions. With the number of different data points available it’s important that we all consistently hone our ability to derive insights using tools such as Google Analytics, KISSMetics, CrazyEgg and all of the platforms we use regularly such as Hubspot, MailChimp, Pure360, ActOn and other marketing platforms.

2015 is the time for us as Marketers to quantify our efforts regularly, understand how to measure those efforts and translate those results into the next steps of any marketing campaign.

Always remembering that we are working to extract actionable information from the data, not simply trying to defend a particular campaign.

Design and Implement Marketing Execution Roadmaps

Ideas are extremely cheap. Execution is everything. Planned execution is the goal we all need to set for ourselves on a regular basis.

Roadmaps are good, they reduce friction, make execution steps clear to everyone involved, provide clarity of purpose and set teams up for success rather than prime them for failure.

Too often Marketers are put at the end of other individuals and team whips. What’s the solution?

Planning, clarity and communication. Your peers will respect the process, after a few model run throughs you’ll see the benefit of your hard work.

Marketing campaign roadmaps include the following elements:

The Campaign Overview. It includes the 5Ws of the campaign with details, next steps, responsibilities, flight dates and KPIs being measured.

Create Wireframes. They are critical to success, they layout the process, language and flow you are anticipating to occur during the marketing process.

Lay out the Nurturing Process. We only wish we could convert 100% of leads to customers. Some people simply are not ready for that, but we definitely don’t want to lose or even worse ignore them.

Growth Hacking Strategies and Steps. We won’t simply post and pray, nor will we simply throw up paid efforts to drive individuals to a conversion. We’ll get creative, get out there and promote our product through numerous channels: PR, community, social, content, video, infographics are some examples. What are we going to do and how are we going to do it? Defining this will make execution clear and defined.

These roadmaps are the bread and butter of the modern marketer, they don’t need to be elaborate. They will most certainly reduce friction freeing you to achieve your acquisition, growth and revenue goals. Which is after all why we’re doing all of this marketing in the first place.

Develop User Experience (UX) Skill Sets

User Experience (UX) involves a person’s behaviours, attitudes, and emotions about using a particular product, system or service.

It’s not just about the layout of the page and the technical design implications of your product. It’s about the person at the receiving end of your product, how they feel, what emotions are triggered. These are extremely important issues.

User Experience is about much more than the clicks a person takes and it often occurs outside of the interaction episodes which take place.

It’s how they feel about your product?
What do their friends say?
What does the media say?
How is your brand perceived?

When we are focusing on User Experience we see good overall user experience with a company’s products as critical for securing brand loyalty and enhancing the growth of customer base.

As Marketers who are talking to people in so many different places, it’s critical that we appreciate, understand and continually focus on the experiences of our communities.

I’m also purposely using specific terms (words matter) users are customers and they are people. User and customer bases are communities.

We need to build communities and relationships in 2015 more than ever. Focusing on developing our User Experience skills into practical action should be high on the list of priorities throughout the year.

Hone Those Writing Skills

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~ Mark Twain

Even though we’re literally barraged with new technologies on a daily basis, the written word continues to dominate as a required skill for every marketer regardless of background, role or experience.

Believe it or not, I’ve actually run into numerous “marketing professionals” who will claim to either not write or (even worse) don’t give writing the importance it deserves.

Let’s agree on one thing: words matter. They matter alot.

As a Marketer, heck as a person, writing and more importantly communication is one of the most important skills we can hone on a regular basis. If you’re a marketer in 2015 here are the items I would suggest:

Dedicate yourself to blogging on a regular basis, at minimum on a weekly basis. There is no excuse no to do it. Pick your platform: Medium, WordPress, Quora, LinkedIn whichever and just do it.

I’ve committed to content creation on a regular basis, I am now committing to a 2 post per week schedule for 2015.

My 2015 personal commitment to write 2 quality blogs posts (minimum 500 words) on http://honeypotmarketing.com or http://dannedelko.com each and every week. If I don’t commit to it, I will be donating $10 for each weekly infraction to The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. You heard it here first. If I somehow manage to make it through 2015 producing a minimum of 104 quality articles I’ll donate $250 at the end of 2015 in addition to any infraction penalties!

It’s not going to be easy, but it’s a challenge I’m willing to stay up late into the night or early in the morning to commit to sticking with all year long.

Focus on form and flow: writing is on one hand natural, on the other hand it’s extremely awkward. It can be hard to get your point across to a potentially “uninformed” audience.

When I say that, I mean the reader cannot reach into your brain and glean your meaning, it’s our job to convey that through form and flow.

Making sure writing serves a purpose: creating content for the sake of creating content is nothing more than white noise. Laying out even a basic content strategy and sticking to it is important.

We all need goals and once readers understand the goal of your content creation, they’ll come back for more. As long as you (and me) are consistent!

Another personal goal of mine for 2015 is to develop my script writing skills as it applies to video content creation. It’s a completely different spin on content creation but it’s a rewarding and valuable process.

In 2015 every Marketer should really commit to a similar set of challenges.

Our ability to communicate as marketers, the words we use in print, on websites, landing pages, calls to action, on social media outlets and everywhere is fundamentally core to our profession.

Also keeping in mind that writing is a damnvery difficult thing to do.

Create a Diligent Persona Development Process

Persona development is a core process that’s required in order to truly understand who we are speaking to.

It’s deeper than demographic profiling, much deeper.

It touches on philosophies, pain points, motivations, language styles. It’s a focus on the person not the demographic. Once we begin to understand our customers and community we can work to connect to them in substantial ways.

Persona development is an ongoing process of talking to people, understanding them.

It’s not a front loaded, “one and done” process although it is often treated that way. Becoming comfortable with the process, and in fact creating a process is key successful ongoing persona development.

Here at Honeypot we spend alot of time working on our own Persona Development Process.

In 2015 we’re focusing on the “Never Ending Persona”. It includes consistent communication with real people on a regular basis, capturing the psychology of the people that make up the communities we are trying to speak with.

In order to be successful it’s our goal to build the Never Ending Persona into our products and services and those of our awesome clients. It’s an exciting and satisfying goal for the upcoming year.

After all, talking to the people that care about what we’re doing is a very enjoyable experience.

]]>http://honeypotmarketing.com/marketing-skills-2015/feed/3One List to Rule Them All: CASL Editionhttp://honeypotmarketing.com/casl-list-segmentation-lotr/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/casl-list-segmentation-lotr/#respondTue, 15 Jul 2014 11:43:23 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=3721Unless you’ve been living in Gollum’s cave the last few months, you’ve probably heard that the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation- more fondly known as CASL- came into effect on July 1st. The new rules have many marketers worried, especially those who rely on email campaigns and other modern marketing strategies. But not us! We’ve been to Mordor and back […]

]]>http://honeypotmarketing.com/casl-list-segmentation-lotr/feed/0Google Analytics: are your 30 day comparisons wrong? Thanks Tips!http://honeypotmarketing.com/google-analytics-comparisons/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/google-analytics-comparisons/#respondThu, 10 Jul 2014 13:08:04 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=3752It’s common for any one of us marketers and business people to want to view our current 30 day performance versus previous 30 day performance when using Google Analytics. When used in conjunction with some fore thought, analysis, funnels and segmentation you can gain significant insights into your most recent activity and how it has […]

]]>It’s common for any one of us marketers and business people to want to view our current 30 day performance versus previous 30 day performance when using Google Analytics.

When used in conjunction with some fore thought, analysis, funnels and segmentation you can gain significant insights into your most recent activity and how it has impacted your business.

There’s only one minor problem with the default Google “Previous 30 Day” settings. If you use the canned defaults for comparative analysis, you could be looking at the wrong information.

Apples & Oranges?

When using the default 30 days prior Google Analytics will use the absolute 30 days prior, rather than the relative day of the week.

Our Sunday traffic and conversions are significantly different than our Tuesday traffic and conversions, we’re also sure you’re in the same analytics boat. Let’s fix this and you should see some significantly different results:

This makes more sense!

Additionally, when we create and manage a content and conversion strategy we optimize content delivery, which often means regular post days of the week for certain types of content.

Using the defaults means we are comparing apples to orange rather than apples to apples. The simple fix?

Adjust your 30 day comparisons to reflect a normalized calendar day rather than 30 specific days. Once that’s done you can save your rolling report as a short cut or to a new dashboard.

One final note: Google Analytics is a powerful tool when setup properly and used to delve deeply into your business performance. Stay tuned for more on goals, funnels, conversions, and segmentation!

]]>http://honeypotmarketing.com/google-analytics-comparisons/feed/0Social Contesting, Software, CASL and Youhttp://honeypotmarketing.com/social-contesting-apps-casl/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/social-contesting-apps-casl/#commentsSat, 07 Jun 2014 11:54:28 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=3448If you believe you don’t need to pay attention to CASL because you don’t utilize email marketing in your business strategy, you might want to think again. The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation was made to protect against any violation involving telecommunications including text messaging, distributing applications, and yes even social media. This is the Canadian government’s attempt to weed out spam, […]

]]>If you believe you don’t need to pay attention to CASL because you don’t utilize email marketing in your business strategy, you might want to think again.

The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation was made to protect against any violation involving telecommunications including text messaging, distributing applications, and yes even social media.

This is the Canadian government’s attempt to weed out spam, malware, and other malicious content from our inboxes and beyond.

The first thing you should do to save yourself the headache of a huge CASL fine is brush up on possible CASL violations:

Sending commercial electronic messages (or CEMs) without express or implied consent (by the way, this includes direct messaging on social networks).

Installing computer programs on another person’s computer system without their express consent (don’t settle for implied consent, get express!)

Using false or misleading electronic representations to promote a product, service or business (now you must clearly identify the sender and any third parties involved or else face a hefty fine).

Collecting electronic addresses without authorization (unless they are displayed in a conspicuous manner and do not have a disclaimer against CEMs- commercial electronic messages).

Collecting personal information by accessing a computer system in violation of an Act of Parliament.

Now that you know the basics of what you shouldn’t do, you’re a little more prepared to handle the upcoming changes. Another good defence for avoiding CASL fines is being aware of how the legislation will affect the messages your business sends everyday– including those on social networks.

Social Media & Contesting

Social media contesting is a very effective tactic to engage with new qualified leads, but if you want to continue to use social media and contesting after July 1st, you should take a look at some of the ways CASL will apply to social networks and specifically to social contesting:

A like, comment, or follow does not count as implied consent to contact the user in the future (so don’t start messaging anyone who likes you on Facebook, or they won’t like you for long).

Direct messages on social networks must abide by the 3 rules of CEM handed down by CASL: obtain recipient consent, clearly identify sender, and include an unsubscribe mechanism.

LinkedIn is already CASL Compliant, so feel free to utilize your InMail, social selling and LinkedIn Premium resources if you have an upgraded account.

Adding a disclaimer to your direct messages encouraging the recipient to respond with a request to unsubscribe does satisfy the mechanism requirement.

You’re going to want to implement a process for tracking the consenting contacts you gather from social networks– there is no longer a 10 day unsubscribe grace period like with CAN-SPAM.

You can’t obtain consent through social networks by direct messaging the contact and requesting it (but there are some exemptions, so know your CASL well!)

Speaking of exemptions, when it comes to family members or personal relationships, CASL may not apply. What’s the legal definition of a friend? The government’s outlined it for you:

“A “personal relationship” requires that the real identity of the individual who alleges a personal relationship is known by the other individual involved in such a relationship (as opposed to instances where a virtual identity or an alias is used). Using social media or sharing the same network does not necessarily reveal a personal relationship between individuals. The mere use of buttons available on social media websites – such as clicking “like”, voting for or against a link or post, accepting someone as a “Friend”, or clicking “Follow” – will generally be insufficient to constitute a personal relationship.”

When executing your social contest, be sure to include your express consent opt-in check box which must be left blank for the contact to check themselves if they would like future CEMs from your business (and if you’re planning on subscribing them to any of your- or other third party- promotional or marketing lists after they enter, there needs to be a separate check box and disclaimer for that too).

If you haven’t already, developing a set of best practices surrounding your social media communications (or really any communications that fall under CASL) would be a wise decision. Not only will it help you comply with CASL, but it’ll have other positive impacts on your marketing efforts too- it’s just the smart thing to do.

Canadians are also protected against malicious applications under Bill C-28. Sometimes apps are unknowingly downloaded, piggy-backed onto other applications, or perhaps you just thought you were getting the free version of your favourite game. Harmful malware can give cyber criminals access to your contacts, your photos, your calendar, or they could even remotely gain control of your mobile device.

The Government of Canada provides some solid basic tips for avoiding damaging downloads– we have to do our part too to help eliminate spam. Learning to recognize suspicious CEMs or apps is one of the best ways to ensure we can continue to use messaging like email with credibility and success.

While the above information was sourced from credible resources including the official fightspam.gc.ca government website, it should not be taken as binding legal advice- we advise you to seek professional legal council if you believe you have an issue.

]]>http://honeypotmarketing.com/social-contesting-apps-casl/feed/5What is CASL? The Basics of Bill C-28http://honeypotmarketing.com/casl-basics/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/casl-basics/#commentsThu, 29 May 2014 20:25:31 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=3259Looking for more CASL? Q&A + Resources: The Honeypot CASL Resource Centre Deep Dive: 4 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About CASL Welcome to the beginning of a month long CASL-a-palooza here at the Hive. We’re going to be publishing a constant stream of practical and actionable CASL information so you’ll be prepared for the coming […]

Looking for more CASL?

Welcome to the beginning of a month long CASL-a-palooza here at the Hive.

We’re going to be publishing a constant stream of practical and actionable CASL information so you’ll be prepared for the coming changes this July 1, 2014.

Let’s dive right in with some background on CASL, talk about where Bill C-28 came from and where it’s going to take us. First things first, CASL has been with us for 3.5 years as shocking as that may sound, however it’s had no enforcement in that time.

Imagine you have a speed limit posted but no tickets could ever be issued for speeding.

Although most people would stay within reasonable bounds of the limit there would be a few who just go crazy and drive 160km/h in a 100km/h zone at all times.

CASL is the speeding ticket, and it can be a hefty one.

What is the intent of CASL?

The intent of CASL is to deter the most damaging and deceptive forms of spam, such as identity theft, phishing and spyware, from occurring in Canada and to help to drive out spammers.

This makes CASL a good thing. Why?

Spam is bad.

Unsolicited electronic communications are bad.

It’s annoying to enter a contest using a paper ballot and all of a sudden get random promotional and marketing emails. If you’re a marketer and reading this, I know you’ve done this, admit it!

Being the recipient of what many in business call the “email blast” is the most annoying thing I can imagine, a completely un-targeted non-personalized message that truly means nothing to me. I have to qualify that I also despise the cringe-worthy term “email blast” under any circumstances.

Have you ever unsubscribed and magically emails continue to be sent to you? Yep. Me too.

From a marketing perspective unqualified email lists suck. Open rates are terrible, complaints abound and the message simply isn’t delivered. Not much point to them so hyper qualifying will now be law. It’s not often I say this but “Thank You Government of Canada”.

You should also use the Canadian Government’s Fight Spam Website as your primary resource: www.fightspam.gc.ca and of course the extensive (and practical) resources right here at Honeypot Marketing.

When talking about electronic communication, and let’s note that distinction CASL is about more than email. It’s covers telephone and any electronic method of communications: SMS, voice, email, anything electronic. In many ways everything is electronic in 2014.

It also deals with other electronic threats to commerce, such as the installation of computer programs and the alteration of transmission data, without express consent. These threats also include the installation of malware, such as computer viruses.

A note to software developers: your work needs to be CASL compliant.

And finally to quote the government:

These violations include, but are not limited to, spam, malware, spyware, address harvesting and false and misleading representations involving the use of any means of telecommunications, Short Message Services (SMS), social networking, websites, URL’s and other locators, applications, blogs, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and any other current and future internet and wireless telecommunication threats prohibited by Canada’s anti-spam legislation.

Got it. Now What?

Assuming you’re the sender of electronic messages there are three basic things you need to do and I sincerely hope you’re doing these today:

Gain diligent (trackable) consent from the user.

Provide your complete contact and identification information.

Provide simple, immediate and clear unsubscribe mechanisms.

Consent is the interesting topic here. Currently you’re probably doing one of two things: implied consent or no consent at all. We see “no consent at all” every day here at Honeypot. This includes:

Paper ballot inclusion into a marketing list without any expressed consent.

“Fishbowl” marketing. Meaning I went to a conference and dropped my business card, suddenly I’m in a sales and marketing campaign.

Address harvesting. I got some nifty software that pulled people information from Facebook or some other forum.

I bought a list and here it is in Excel format.

All of the above are violations of CASL. I would strongly recommend not doing that any more, not to mention the fact that you should never have done it in the first place to be quite blunt.

What Do I Do Now?

Lots. You can start by doing the following to get your house in order:

Get yourself a proper marketing platform and system. These include Hubspot, ActOn or Mailchimp, you need to centralize information.

Make sure you sweep through your organization and find out where consumer information came from and who is using it for what. No more cowboy sales and marketing efforts.

Create a clever series of “opt-in” campaigns in the month of June. Get that consent, make it worth your leads and customers time.

Do not send your monthly “e-blast” before addressing your CASL diligence and requirements. Fines suck, the process will suck even worse especially if you made a mistake rather than acted maliciously.

Do The Right Thing. If you think it might be wrong then you’re right, it’s wrong.

CASL is both simple and complex at the same time. Don’t get stuck in the semantics and weeds, be straight-forward and truly consider what you communication process looks like as you market, and grow your business.

]]>http://honeypotmarketing.com/casl-basics/feed/6CASL – 4 things you probably didn’t know about the new lawhttp://honeypotmarketing.com/4-casl-facts/
http://honeypotmarketing.com/4-casl-facts/#commentsThu, 29 May 2014 19:28:48 +0000http://honeypotmarketing.com/?p=3248Looking for more CASL? Q&A + Resources: The Honeypot CASL Resource Centre Start Here: What is CASL? The Basics of Bill C-28 You are Here: 4 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About CASL July 1, 2014 is going to be a big day here in Canada. It marks the introduction and enforcement of the Canadian […]

Looking for more CASL?

July 1, 2014 is going to be a big day here in Canada. It marks the introduction and enforcement of the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation otherwise known as CASL. I’m going to begin this post with the standard IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer) disclaimer, if you think you have a unique case and questions around how CASL will apply to your business then simply complete this simple form and we can connect you with a number of CASL specialists.

The Canadian Anti-Spam Law or CASL will:

affect every part of your business from sales to marketing and finance to operations.

require you to provide a “diligence system” that can track all consumer communications and histories.

fundamentally change the way you collect and communicate to your leads, contacts and customers.

force businesses to implement a process around the collection of consumer information.

be good for the consumer and be good for business.

We’ll be launching our ongoing CASL blog series and resource centre throughout the month of June in anticipation of CASL implementation on July 1, 2014. For the record all of us here at Honeypot Marketing are heartily in favour of CASL, these best practices will make our marketing efforts more effective.

Gone will be the days of the “email blast” or the “I’ve got a list here in an excel spreadsheet”. We say good riddance to that!

What I do want to review beyond the basics of CASL are 4 things you probably did not know about the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation.

Due Diligence Defense

If you can demonstrate that best practices are in place for your email policies, this will likely be a reasonable defense against CASL claims. We strongly recommend a platform such as Hubspot, ActOn or Mailchimp that will allow you to access consumer data in a central and easily accessible location.

Identify Sender – Agencies Beware

CASL requires the sender’s name and postal address. If the message is sent on behalf of another person, that person must be identified as well, along with a statement indicating which is which.

CASL Applies to Transactional Email

Transactional emails include confirmations, receipts, payment notifications and any system emails. If you’re including a marketing or promotional message within these electronic communications then they fall under CASL regulations.

It’s About More than Email

CASL is broad and covers more than email. Thus, no bulk distinction exists in the law—even one-to-one marketing messaging must comply.

Unsubscribes Need to Happen Immediately

Most marketers adhere to the US version of spam laws known as CAN-SPAM, which has a 10-day grace period of processing an unsubscribe. Those days are gone, subscriptions must be handled immediately, without a sign-in required and must occur in a simple process.

In summary, CASL is very real and very real fines will be handed down after July 1. At the end of the day give clear notice and describe what you’re doing. Set proper expectations, and you’re likely going to be okay under CASL.

What Happens If…

“Oops. We accidentally sent an unsolicited message to a Canadian subscriber.”

Relax. Take a deep breath. CRTC and Competition Bureau have a process called an “undertaking.” Mistakes and errors occur.

When this happens, marketers can and should preemptively say, “We made a mistake and won’t do this again.”

Technical errors also occur, you heard of the SNAFU syndrome?

Flat fines may be applied to such situations. But, if you show good faith to not repeat them, you’ll be in good standing. Of course, we should all be careful about errors.

It’s not all doom and gloom! Regulations commissions have also said that they have no interest in interfering with legitimate marketers.

Stay tuned, we’ve got much more on the CASL front including a targeted series of articles as it applies to every area of your business including CASL for:

The Hospitality Industry.

Sales Teams.

Marketing Teams.

Agencies.

B2B Sales and Marketing.

Your best bet is to subscribe to our blog to keep informed about CASL, privacy and business in Canada.